wanted to be late in the process. i'd been in the senate one day, and back in 1985, and dan inouye came to visit me in my office. he was up here, i was down here. and he just introduced himself, we talked a bit about our states, he had all kinds of seniority and, you know, amazing qualities. and i was nothing. and he came to see me. i'm sorry, but you don't forget things like that. says something about him which went through his life. just the way he was. from there, a long friendship began. and while i believed he looked at me as a friend, i looked to him as so much more than that. he was in a total sense a mentor with sort of a confucian touch because he had a japanese heritage and i had an interest in japan and he had a way of imparting judgments and wisdom which were in the eastern method, very subtle. he was not always that way, but he could be, and he was with me. i learned from him how this chamber works, how to get things done. i watched the way he did them. not with a heavy fist or sharp words, but with thoughtfulness, hard work, a commanding presence, that voice, that voice. a
